Lesson 12

Paul's Letter to the Colossians

World English Bible translation

Today's Scripture

1:21 You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil works, 1:22
yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and without blemish and blameless before him, 1:23if
it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and
not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which is
being proclaimed in all creation under heaven; of which I, Paul, was
made a servant.

Today's Lesson

Paul has just
finished the hymn to Jesus Christ for which this letter is best known.
His final thoughts in that section were of the reconciliation that God
has offered to the creation through the blood of Christ. As he turns
back to addressing them, he continues with the theme of God's
reconciliation.

He begins with
the state of man before God acts. Paul tells the Colossians that they
were once alienated from God and enemies of His in their own minds
because of their evil works. This is the natural state of fallen man
before God steps in. Everyone that you or I have ever known started
here. I know that some people do not believe this. There are groups
that believe that children born of Christian parents and raised in the
church are never alienated from God. Anyone who has spent time teaching
Sunday School can tell you, though, that Christian children are just as
rebellious as children raised by heathens. Maybe more so.

People who come
to recognize that they are sinners and rebels against God know that
they need a savior. They recognize that they are lost. Have you ever
been driving down a road when you get the sudden impression that you
may not be on the highway you thought you were on? You start to look
around for signs or familiar landmarks and your sense of anxiety raises
with every passing moment. It's almost a relief when you finally do
conclude that you are on the wrong road because then you can do
something about it. Sometimes you can just keep going for a long time
though and not even be aware that you aren't where you thought you were.

These people of
Colossae had been convinced that they were completely on the wrong
track. But then they were told that God had sent His Son and Jesus had
died on the cross for their redemption. God had reconciled Himself to
them through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Now, those who
place their trust in Jesus come before God and they are regarded as
"holy and without blemish and blameless before him."

Can you
comprehend how clean you must be for God to see you as "without
blemish"? God sees everything. God sees from the infinitely large to
the infinitely small. There is no hiding before Him. If God declares
that we are holy and without blemish, then we must be. God is the
standard of holiness. If God says that we are blameless, then we are
surely completely and totally without blame. But, why is it that we
don't feel holy or blameless?

If we rely on
our feelings then usually we would have to conclude that after the
initial excitement of coming to Christ we don't feel any different. We
don't feel any holier. In fact, our perception of the sin in our life
becomes more acute so that we actually feel further away from God. It
is at this stage that a healthy understanding about faith must come in.

We are saved by
grace through faith. I must believe that God sees me as blameless and
holy. Faith does not ignore the reality of our situation, it believes
that there is a higher reality that is expressed by God. I am a sinner,
but Christ redeems sinners. I rebel against God, to my shame even to
this day, but Christ reconciles sinners to God. I can cling tenaciously
to faith in what Paul proclaims here. That is what Paul means when he
writes, "if it is so that you continue in the faith, grounded and
steadfast, and not moved away from the hope of the gospel…" Our faith
must be steadfast. We must completely surrender ourselves to the mercy
of God, for without His declaration of holiness we are completely lost.

Can you trust
your entire future on whether or not Christ has declared you to be holy
and blameless? Do you count on anything accept the faith that believes
God against all odds?